Daily Chuckle

[6869704x4]

 

[AM28]

View attachment 141044

COMSEC……..

 

[Magicman]

 

[Magicman]

 

[sheepfarmer]

We must have worked in the same place!

Boy does that ring a bell! I stupidly volunteered to be on a building committee for a group I belong to, and our old building, old school house, had a clogged underground drain carrying rainwater from the roof to what turns out to be an unknown destination. One of my fellow building committee guys was determined to keep digging up the pipe until all the clogs could be resolved. Never mind the excavations would kill some big oak trees. Every second sentence was "my son the engineer". Son saying useful things like you need a signed stamped engineering permit to dig a hole. That we MUST get the pipe to carry this water to the city storm drain in the street. That we must have an engineered design to make a rain garden. Etc.Etc. Couldn't convince him that odds of an 60 year old drainpipe being salvageable were slim. Turns out city has no record that original pipe actually goes into the drain, and they don't especially want our storm water. I proposed we bring the pipe to daylight and run water into a grassy area that acts as a natural swale for the whole property, or leave it draining out a clean out onto the grass, which it has been doing for 10 years. I lost the battle to make a long story short. I have 7 underground drains on my farm, and a lot of experience with old stuff, but they went ahead with the engineer's notions. Dug a huge trench, found pipe full of roots, and broken where it went under driveway. Couldn't either jet it or camera it to the end. Blew through $4500. They'd be out there still digging holes but the only smart thing the board did was cap the money to be spent at 5k. We don't have a lot of money so I would rather have spent it on something else, but not my call. So now we have a pair of new cleanouts right next to the driveway where they will be hit by the guys plowing snow. Grrr.

 

[skeets]

Sounds about right, common sense is not so common any more

 

[Moose7060]

 

[Moose7060]

 

[Daren Todd]

Boy does that ring a bell! I stupidly volunteered to be on a building committee for a group I belong to, and our old building, old school house, had a clogged underground drain carrying rainwater from the roof to what turns out to be an unknown destination. One of my fellow building committee guys was determined to keep digging up the pipe until all the clogs could be resolved. Never mind the excavations would kill some big oak trees. Every second sentence was "my son the engineer". Son saying useful things like you need a signed stamped engineering permit to dig a hole. That we MUST get the pipe to carry this water to the city storm drain in the street. That we must have an engineered design to make a rain garden. Etc.Etc. Couldn't convince him that odds of an 60 year old drainpipe being salvageable were slim. Turns out city has no record that original pipe actually goes into the drain, and they don't especially want our storm water. I proposed we bring the pipe to daylight and run water into a grassy area that acts as a natural swale for the whole property, or leave it draining out a clean out onto the grass, which it has been doing for 10 years. I lost the battle to make a long story short. I have 7 underground drains on my farm, and a lot of experience with old stuff, but they went ahead with the engineer's notions. Dug a huge trench, found pipe full of roots, and broken where it went under driveway. Couldn't either jet it or camera it to the end. Blew through $4500. They'd be out there still digging holes but the only smart thing the board did was cap the money to be spent at 5k. We don't have a lot of money so I would rather have spent it on something else, but not my call. So now we have a pair of new cleanouts right next to the driveway where they will be hit by the guys plowing snow. Grrr.

That could have been a quick fix for less than $50

 

[D2Cat]

 

[skeets]

 

[sheepfarmer]

That could have been a quick fix for less than $50

Yup. A perforated lid for the cleanout would have done it. Just to keep the kids from dropping rocks down it..

 

[Magicman]

 

[Daren Todd]

Yup. A perforated lid for the cleanout would have done it. Just to keep the kids from dropping rocks down it..

I've always said you need to get an engineer out of the way and let someone else come up with the solution

I've dealt with a few over the years that just get me shaking my head.

I've perfected not showing what I'm thinking on my face, but every now and then, and engineer will get me to slip

I had one give me this huge convoluted list of parts they needed. The list was so long and full of odd ball stuff we wouldn't use, so we told them we would sell them the parts.

But... I had an idea as to what he was wanting to do, so I grabbed a couple manifolds we had made for just such an occasion.

I got to the site, and the engineers employees grabbed the two manifolds and said they would wor perfectly for what they were trying to do.

So I rented them the manifolds for the duration of the job, and sold them a few grand worth of fittings at a hefty mark up, for them to sit off to the side of the jobsite

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

My experience has been very different. I’ve worked with engineers that have come up with the most unique but common sense solutions that saved money and proved reliable, servicable and inexpensive. I’d suggest it may be their backgrounds combined with their education. I’ve lived in a rural agrarian area where most of the engineers grew up on poor dairy farms. That combined with a knowledge of structural physics and chemistry seemed to be the magic combination.
Not all engineers have a Master’s degree either as some I know learned in the on-the-job path to their skillset. The only downside to hiring those is they cannot sign off on the structure or device without a CE certificate. I’ve found both types knowledgeable and worth their cost.

 

[Magicman]

Need an Engineer or a Doctor?

 

[D2Cat]

 

[6869704x4]

 

[Moose7060]

 

[Daren Todd]